Metroid: Life or Death
by LAByrinith
Summary: Samus must explore a deadly world infested with the dreaded Space Pirates.
1. A Toxic Realm

Metroid: Life or Death  
  
Okay, this would be my second Fanfiction. Not as good as my other one (in my opinion anyway), but still pretty good. Anyway, the updates on this will be slow, and I will update rarely if I get no reviews (because, you know, I might want to change some things to make it better). But enough of my talk, let's get onto the story.

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Ridley's blood red eyes shone with pleasure as he glanced at the dry, barren land before him. He sat on his perch, witch was a broken pillar among sandstone ruins. Yes, the ruins were once a great temple, or perhaps a city. Now, however, it seemed like no more than a pile of dust and chiseled rock. The great, dragon-like beast glared at the dry plain with what was almost a grin of sharp fangs. Clouds of dust and sand swirled up in a silent gust of wind, and drifted slowly across the orange-red landscape. Ridley let out a hushed, relaxed sigh, his exhaled breath black as smoke with the toxic air. This was the air he liked to breathe.  
Then, a figure appeared from behind the clouds of dust. Ridley squinted, and clenched the pillar more tightly, his claws digging deeper into the stone. It could not be who he thought it was. No... It couldn't be, for she was dead. He watched, watched as the figure emerged from the smog. He saw light reflect radiantly off of metallic armor. Then, with a hiss of astonished anger, he saw the bounty hunter walk bravely from the dust clouds behind her. How could this be? Surely he had killed her in their last quarrel. He remembered throwing the hunter into a pit of acid, he remembered burning through her armor, and he remembered shedding her blood, for he saw it through her visor.  
But Samus was alive. Not only that, but the silver cannon on her right arm was larger, and seemed to shimmer with a bluish light. Ridley did _not _remember this, and did not approve of it. He growled, and clasped the stone so tightly that his paws became scabbed. His tail, witch ended in a spade-shaped spike, swished back and fourth like a pendulum. The bounty hunter neared, and he was sure that it was Samus, and she did not see him.  
A fiery heat rose in his throat, and he could almost taste the sparks on his jet-black tongue. Then, he thought better of it, and refrained from releasing balls of fire at his long-time rival. If he could not kill her before, the he was most likely not ready to face her when she had this new advancement in her arm cannon. Ridley, though seemingly mindless, was not stupid.  
He spread his thin wings, and leapt from the shadows. Samus stopped in her tracks as the deep purple beast fled across the hazy sky overhead. She raised her arm cannon, now equipped with the wave beam, to strike him, not forgetting their last encounter. She then lowered it, and thought better of her actions. This was no time to pick a fight with Ridley. She watched his shadow vanish from the sky, then turned to the ruins before her.  
  
Her mission was to investigate an area that had been invaded by space pirates, and kill them when she had the chance. For they were creating trouble, and they had Metroids. 


	2. Ruins of a Dark Past

Samus's metal footsteps echoed as she entered the shrine ruins. If it were not for the dim rays of light leaking through the cracks in the ceiling, it would be almost too dark to see. For the time she was there, she did not find any hostile foes, but she was always ready. It was quiet, except for the sound of her breathing, and that could only be heard from within her helmet. Standing there, she examined the area. The stone walls and pillars were collecting dust and decaying. Most of the floor tiles were missing, leaving only dry soil at her feet. The light flowing into the room was red, but that could have easily been because of the atmosphere that the sunlight broke through. Beads of sweat rolled down her face, but it was cooler in the ruins than outside.  
She proceeded down a hallway, or what was left of it, and came to a blockade of cracked stone. It did not seem like the pile of rock appeared there by natural means; something must have purposely moved it there. The stones did not break, even with her missiles and wave beam, because they were packed so tightly together. She noticed a gap at the bottom, where the warm stone met the floor. It was the entrance to a small, hollowed passageway that most likely led into the next room. If it were not for her bulky Power Suit, Samus could have easily crawled through the space.  
She crouched, and collapsed her body, her suit transforming protectively around her in a sphere. Doing this, she became just small enough to go through the narrow tunnel into the next room. While she could not see as a Morph Ball, she was able to tell where she was going by other means. Once she had made it to the chamber, Samus restored her body to its normal form behind a pillar. She could sense other life forms in the room. They were powerful, but injured. Without moving, she could see a clawed guard by the door. It must have not noticed her when she passed it as a Morph Ball. She was certainly glad of this, for it was a Space Pirate. It only took her one glance to be sure of it.   
The beast had huge claws, similar to the claws of a crab. The inside of the claws was rowed with so many spikes that they looked like teeth within gaping jaws. Space pirates had the ability to generate beams of energy from these claws, witch was definitely their preferred method of fighting. This was not the only obvious Space Pirate feature, however. Space Pirates also had piercing eyes witch glowed, and had no pupils. Their bodies were thin and agile, and their skin was like plated armor. Samus could easily penetrate their armor with her beams, and they could easily do the same to her.  
The guard's white eyes shifted, but did not see the hunter in the shadows. Samus knew well that there were at least two more pirates here, and she could see one of their shadows. She locked onto the large Space Pirate standing guard, and charged up an indigo Wave Beam. The pirate noticed the ball of energy forming at the tip of her cannon, but he could not act fast enough to avoid being hit by the intense blast. He fell to the ground, roaring in the pain of his burned insides, and died. The two other pirates hissed things to each other, and Samus heard their clawed feet run across the floor in search of her. As soon as they came into her sight, she switched to her missiles. They heard the click, and were blasted apart by the weapon's strength. Neither of them lived to alert the others, and this was an advantage for the bounty hunter. She came out from behind the tall column, and stepped over the corpse of the guard. His inhuman eyes had lost their glow, and he had been burned so severely that he did not bleed.  
  
There must have been something in these ruins, or else the Space Pirates would not have been wasting their time here. The next few chambers were blocked with metal doors, clearly built by the pirates, because the doors were very similar to those Samus once saw in their ship. The doorway opened at the command of her Wave Beam, and she proceeded through, her footsteps echoing until the metal entranceway closed behind her.


	3. The Space Pirate Firefight

She thought it would have been dark in this part of the ruins, but the walls seemed to be giving off radiant light. The cracks and fissures in the stone floor had been sealed with metal. It was most likely the Space Pirates' doing. This chamber was definitely cooler, but not exactly frigid. Strangely, there was nothing in the room. No guards, no defense system, no enemies, and no security whatsoever. On the other side of the chamber, there was another door. Beside it was an electronic sign, similar to a computer screen. The words were written in Space Pirate code. Samus approached the screen and translated the words, which read "Private Testing Room. Authorized personnel only." She fired a beam at the door, but it would not open. Of course, Samus was to going to be stopped by a locked door.  
There was always another way in, and the ventilation system was the key in this case. It was located high on the right wall, covered by a metal plate with grating across it. The plate seemed weak, and it melted apart when hit by the wave beam. Now the question was how to reach the slot. It was really just a matter of space jumping in order to get high enough to reach it, and then holding onto the edge of the vent and curling into the Morph Ball state while pulling herself up into the hole.  
She was lucky to have done this when she did, for the locked door opened seconds later, and a Space Pirate limped out as it shut behind him. Ooze from a gashed arm dripped onto the floor after rolling down a scratched claw. His leg was broken and the muscles torn, leaving him weakened and in pain. He had been dealing with creatures beyond his control, by the looks of it. By the time his weakly lifted his head and saw the uncovered hole in the wall, Samus had already rolled through the long, cold tunnel. It did not lead her into the private room, however, but to a small chamber adjacent to it. She did not break open the metal plate on the wall right away when she came to it, because there were two Space Pirates in the room, one of them heavily armored with black plates that could not be penetrated by normal artillery. Before she entered the chamber, she listened to them talk.  
Space Pirate tongue is often difficult to translate, as they do not have a very advanced language, but what they were saying was something like "They have been adapting quickly, sir. They seem to be growing more intelligent." The armored pirate looked the smaller one in the eyes and said, "I've gotten reports of destructive behavior among specimens." "Ah...that's true. There have been injuries inflicted upon some of us lately, some wounds quite devastating..." "Devastating?" The armored one asked, seeming a bit irritated. The smaller Space Pirate nodded. He seemed to be ignoring the other's mood. "Acid burns, broken limbs, and deep cuts are becoming common, sir." "Tell me, is it enough to have to stop experiments?" he asked, tapping the spikes of a claw on the stone table, which was once the base of a pillar. "Most likely not, but if they keep getting stronger, we might have to consider it."  
The armored pirate stood up from the cold, stone block he had been sitting on, and flexed his claws. "Let them continue. Any news of the Hunter?" "Lord Ridley destroyed her in the caverns, sir." "Excellent." he said with a gleam in his solid green eyes. "Check the status of the other guards. I doubt most of them are doing their jobs." "Yes, sir." he replied before crossing to the door. Once he was gone, the guard began pacing the room in the shadows, where he could hardly be seen. Samus dropped a bomb, which was made from the contained energy in her Morph Ball form. The small explosion did not harm her, and blasted the weak, metal plate apart. The pirate looked up, but did not see her. He then shook his head and continued pacing. The bounty hunter rolled out of the vent and onto the floor. As she passed the guard, he noticed her, and she stopped. He glanced down at the metal orb, in which he could see a distorted reflection, and picked her up, holding the ball in his massive, armored claw. He squinted at it and turned his head to one side as he examined what he held, unsure of what it was. To get out of the situation, Samus dropped another bomb in his claw that exploded in seconds. Immediately, he dropped her and hissed. She rolled to the door, and he watched her. He watched her go back into her human form, and he glared at her and hissed "Hunter..." before feeling energy waves strike through him. The Space Pirate still had enough energy to fight back, and cursed to himself because she was alive. This pirate hated Samus as much as the others did. He shot two green beams, one from each claw, and only one hit her. She was thrown aside and into a wall from the attack, but regained her poise quickly. She fired a quick succession of Wave Beam attacks, all of them hitting accurately, as she had locked onto the pirate. He fell to the ground, and said "Hunter...your presence will be known soon, and you will die!" before shutting his eyes. After that, all was silent.   
Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched siren sounded, and the walls flashed with red light. Somehow, the guard had set off an alarm of some kind, and Samus could do nothing about it. She turned to the nearest door, and passed through it into the Space Pirate laboratory. The red light reflected off of glass confinements that contained different organisms. The pirates immediately left their computer screens to attack Samus when she entered. There were only about five of them in the lab, but that was enough to keep the bounty hunter busy. She thought it best to use missiles rather than her Wave Beam, because these weapons usually took out enemies faster. The five pirates had an advantage in their number, though they had no uniform battle system, and all attacked Samus randomly and madly whenever she entered their sight. She fired a missile at one of them, and it barely missed, shattering a computer screen behind him. Bolts of electricity burst free from the hot wires, sparking anything that came close. Another missile was fired at the Space Pirate, and as it made contact with him, he was thrown backwards into a glass tank, sending cracks up and across it and letting the liquid inside seep out. Samus stepped back from the glass, expecting it to shatter. However, it did not.

When the last two pirates spotted her, they shot their red beams rapidly. Since they were each on a different side of her, it was slightly more difficult to fight them and avoid their attacks. She focused her attention to the one on her left, and fed him two missiles while the other assaulted her from behind. The blasts stung her back and tore at her energy. She turned as her previous victim fell to the cold, metal floor, and shot some missiles at the attacking pirate. He was hit by one, but leapt aside to avoid the second, jumping right into the third. This one almost killed him, severing an arm and burning what was left of his body, so Samus finished him off with a shock of Wave Beam, since she was almost out of missiles by now.   
A few floors up, in that same chamber, leaning over a rail, were two Space Pirates, one of them a guard in thick armor. His eyes were a dark blue color, and his claws were larger than the others. He gazed down at Samus, who was resting after having killed the five pirates. The alarm still rang noisily overhead, but the pirate ignored it. He turned to the other and hissed "Release it." "What!?" "You heard me. Do you think the rest of our soldiers can take her on right now? Do you want to make that sacrifice!?" "No! But...if we release it, the results could be disastrous." "Of course, that's the plan. Now let it go and tell the others to evacuate." "And you, sir?" The guard pirate clenched the metal rail in his spiked claws and looked down at Samus. "I'm going to watch the Hunter die."  
  
A few moments passed in the lab before the siren silenced and the warning lights faded out. Samus knew that something wasn't right. The room was silent besides the crackling from the sparking wires. All of the lights flickered, and the computers turned off. The doors shut and locked. The lights went out for three seconds, during which Samus sensed a huge, intense life form approaching. Her heart rate increased, and her breathing became rapid as adrenaline pulsed through her. She could hear it coming, but did not know from which direction it came. It sounded like it was coming through the walls. Sweat formed on her hot face and rolled down until she could taste it on her lips.  
The lights came on as the sound of screeching metal and popping wires erupted from all sides, growing ever louder. She turned to the cracked glass, where the sound was most intense, and raised her arm cannon. She took a deep breath, and saw what must have been four yellow, catlike, glowing eyes behind the cracked glass. Whatever the eyes belonged to roared, bearing a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth like long needles. Glass shattered and struck against Samus's visor and bounced off her helmet, at the same time clear liquid sprayed everywhere in a thick wave, and dripped off of Samus's armor. Once all that had cleared, Samus stood before a creature unlike anything she had seen before. Its skin was sandy-brown, but a darker shade near its legs and tail, and black at its clawed feet. The curved stinger at the end of its tail was jet black as well, and appeared to be dripping some kind of acidic substance. The thing's head was attached to its body by a very short neck, only a few inches long. It had rows of uneven teeth that were stained, most likely with Space Pirate blood. The creature was a beast with four legs and two clawed toes on each foot.   
Samus stared at it as white foam fell from its mouth and vaporized as it hit the floor. It tasted the air with a black, forked tongue, and stretched out its scorpion-like tail. It noted the Hunter's presence and dove at her in a flash. Samus jumped back to avoid the sudden strike. Her heart pounded and her mind raced, but she forced herself to focus on the huge monster, whose body was filled with deadly acids.


	4. Chapter 4

Samus was the first to strike. A single missile was fired, leaving behind it a wave of heat. It hit the creature in the center of its face between two of its eyes. It roared in pain, drops of acidic saliva spraying from its mouth. This gave the Hunter time to dash behind a large, glass tube that contained some kind of creature that had a thin body but large paws. It seemed to be unconscious, or maybe even dead. Samus was hardly interested in the Space Pirates' experiments at a time like this, however.   
The large monster put its tongue into the cool air again and caught Samus's scent, or at least sensed the energy from her Power Suit. It lifted a massive foot over Samus, who ducked into a morph ball just in time to avoid getting crushed, while a shower of sparks and glass rained down on her from the smashed tank. The monster did not at all seem bothered by the shards of glass piercing through the bottom of its foot. It was after Samus, its prey. She rolled along the side of the room under some computer screens until she came to the back corner, where she returned to her normal state and fired two missiles in succession. They both hit the creature's face and burned out one of its glowing eyes, leaving black and red around the socket. It roared again, and when it soon found her location between two monitors, it crouched, and let a greenish acid drip from its mouth, and in the next moment seemed to vomit a thick wave of it over the floor. It tore away at the stone and metal almost instantly, and Samus was smart enough to avoid it as it came, though she could have sworn she saw the body of a Space Pirate within the acidic substance. Of course, it may have just been undigested armor that happened to be unaffected by acid.   
She tried not to think about what would happen if that stuff got through her Power Suit, and focussed on attacking the monster's eyes to hopefully get a missile to its brain. A half-charged Wave Beam took out the other right eye, leaving that side of its face hideously distorted and burned. Then came the worst of luck. The electricity in the room gave out, shutting off all sources of light, including the dim computer screens. It was pitch black, and all Samus could see were the two glowing eyes of the beast. She clasped her left hand around the barrel of her Arm Cannon, and again began charging up her Wave Beam's intensity. The eerie light that rippled across the floor and walls from the charging beam was all that could help Samus find her target.   
Once again, she locked onto its face and released the blast, watching parts of the dark room light up in its path before it made contact with its target. A second later, the creature charged at her, panting loudly as it neared. Samus leapt to one side to narrowly avoid being torn apart by its long, fangs. She was shocked at how fast this thing was for its size. Backing away from it, she fired her last missile. The dimming of the glowing eyes told her that she had managed to hit and blind her foe.   
She knew that its flesh must have softened after so many blows, and prepared a final strike with her Wave Beam. However, before she finished readying her attack, she was swept aside by the hook of the creature's scorpion tail. She was thrashed into another glass tank, shattering it, but the stinger luckily failed to puncture her suit, though it left quite a scratch. She got up quickly and fired what she had of her Wave Beam's energy through her enemy's skull. Coincidentally, the power came back in the same instant that the terrifying beast was killed. Obviously, there was a generator hidden somewhere in the building that a Space Pirate had activated.  
From above, the guard pirate cursed his bad luck, determined to destroy Samus at all costs. Dashing to the nearest computer, he entered a code known only to the guards and Ridley. It was a code to activate the self-destruct system. He could have locked the doors as well, but was greedy for his own life, and did not think twice about the Hunter's ability to escape. Samus quickly realized that the system had been activated, and according to the message flashing in her visor, she had three minutes to escape.  
  
The guard pirate ran for his dear life through a route that was off limits to the Space Pirates that led further into the ruins beyond where they had been plated with metal and electricity. He thought that there would be a shortcut to the way out if he just went down the long corridor he had noticed several times while on duty. He went through an automatic door, where on the other side his clawed feet touched warm stone. This was the corridor. The walls were lined with endless runes and lore from an ancient civilization, though the pirate had no care as to what it meant. He ran down this long hall, the engravings on the stones on either side of him flashing through his large eyes.

One minute had passed since he set the self-destruct, and the hallway seemed endless. Then, there was a pale red light ahead, just like he had seen while on duty. He was positive that this was the surface. He continued on, the air howling through the teeth of his claws and whipping his face. He came into the light, and let it pour over him. He was sure that he was out, and just in time, too, as the building was about to explode any time now.  
Then he smelled the air. The air that he expected to have had the scent of toxic fumes. He could smell it, but it was not as strong as it should have been. He then realized that this was definitely not the surface, but a room deeper into the ruins. The pirate was curious, though, of the source of the red light, as well as finding a way out quickly. He looked around to find a way out, but all he saw were three passages leading lower into the building, and a large statue looming above him on the ceiling. It was a sandstone sculpture of something with spikes on its head and talons for hands. It appeared to be resting on its back, with its claws crossed over its chest, and glaring red eyes looking down at the intruding pirate. It was so old, though, that it was hard to make out what the sculpture was of. The guard stopped to stare at the well-crafted statue curiously, particularly the red eyes that were boiling with warm energy. However, it was too late when he realized that the energy could be released from the eyes in two long beams that seared straight through him.  
  
He could have considered himself lucky then, that he did not have to experience the explosion first-hand.


	5. The Escape

One minute had passed since the self-destruct had been set off. Samus charged through doors as they opened, as was making good time. She was almost out of the ruins by now. Luckily, there were no pirates or danger in her way, for she had been weakened in the recent battle. She still had enough strength to fight off a few foes, but she was lucky that none got in her way. The last time she had done this was when she infiltrated a Space Pirate ship on the outskirts of Brinstar. That time, she barely made it out and acquired a wound on her back from a sharp and red-hot chunk of metal. The wound still remained there as a long, crimson mark below her shoulder blade.

She raced through the stone corridors the way she came, her heart pounding and lungs demanding air. She would have liked to stop and rest, but now was not at all the time. The red rays of light began to shine though the walls, a sign that the Hunter was almost out of the ruins. She ran up a staircase, second of the two she took to descend, and found it almost completely covered by a fallen piece of the sandstone ceiling. From the hole above, the pale, reddish light came through in an almost blinding haze. The sandstone block from the ceiling was cracked in two in a pile on the floor, but Samus could make out unusual markings on its smooth but fractured surface. She stood there for a second and stared at the strange yet somehow familiar symbols. However, a sharp quake distracted Samus from her examination. It was then that she realized that there were thirty seconds remaining before the ruins would self-destruct.

Climbing over the sandstone rubble, Samus pulled herself up through the hole in the ceiling that was barely big enough for her to fit through with her Power Suit. After getting out and steadying herself on the roof of the temple, she took a second to look around the red and orange landscape in case there was a surprise attack waiting for her. Certain that there was none, the bounty hunter dashed over the ancient stone roof.

Ten seconds. Samus fled over the uneven sandstone and blasted through a pillar. As she did so, small chips of it crackled off her visor like hailstones. Close ahead, she could see where the roof ended, near the entrance of the ruins, and another huge column blocking her path. It was the same column that Ridley had used as his shadowed perch. Five, four, then three seconds remained. Samus sped up her pace as her heart throbbed, and just as she came to the pillar, she leapt an inhuman height and flipped twice in midair before landing in a kneeling position on the cracked earth. When she landed, a ring of dust flew out from beneath her, and more cracks formed at her feet. It was then that Samus heard the explosion behind her, slightly muffled from behind her helmet. Red streaks and golden sparks shot out of the temple amidst flaming rock and searing metal. The force of the explosion shook the ground and scattered nearby pebbles. Soon, the area that Samus was in was raining with fragments of what was once a Space Pirate laboratory and ancient ruins.She looked behind her in just time to blast a huge chunk of rock that had been projected from the explosion. The call was too close. The stone would have surely smashed her skull had she not turned just then.

Fatigued and sore, Samus breathed deeply to replenish her lungs with air. She had moved non-stop for the past few minutes, and this was her first time to rest since she got there. The instant of combustion had ended, and now only a few scraps of metal rolled past the Hunter. After she caught her breath, Samus stood up and turned all the way around to look over the ruined ruins. None of the building had survived. Something tall caught her eye in the distance, though. Something had survived the explosion. It was likely to be a Space Pirate, so she kept up her guard. Whatever it was did not move. It was still, like a statue. The figure was tall and thin, possible taller than Samus. She approached it with caution. As she neared, it did not move, and it became clearer to Samus that she was in no danger. However, she never once lowered her arm cannon.

Slowly, she walked over the mess from the explosion, stepping past shortened walls of charred metal, some still slowly melting away. The clouds in the horizon past the figure ahead were moving faster than the ones overhead, and were almost coal black with signs of a fierce storm. It occurred to Samus that she had little time to stay in the area if she wanted to survive. Despite this, she came closer to what stood before her, too curious to see what it was that had survived the violent explosion. To her surprise, it was a statue. However, it was definitely not a normal statue. There was something more...spiritual about it. It was a statue of some creature with talons for hands, and spikes down the back of its head. One of its hands was down at its side, while the other was cupped, as if it had been holding something. Its hand was cupped in a way that it would hold Samus in her morph ball state perfectly.

Samus almost gasped with realization when she saw it. This was a statue quite similar to one that Samus saw when she awoke in the caverns after her brutal battle with Ridley hours, or perhaps days, earlier. She had no memory of what happened since the last part of the battle, when she was thrown against a molten rock in a pool of acid. She had been knocked unconscious, and Ridley finished her. Why was it though that she was still alive? It became more clear when she saw this statue. It was a statue of a Chozo. A statue of one of the ancient, spiritual race that took care of Samus in her youth. She was not completely sure, but it was possible that the energy from the statue was what saved her life, or even revived her.

She then looked at the lowered hand. One of its talons was outstretched, but the statue was broken here, and the talon had broken in half. The talon pointed to the ground, littered with trash from the destruction, and what seemed to be part of another, similar statue. This one was lighter in color, and only the head remained of it. Samus stepped towards it to take a closer look, and her foot sank into something weak. When she looked down, she saw that she was standing in the melted flesh of a dead Space Pirate that had clearly failed to escape on time. Beside its claw was the stone head of the statue. The head was older than the still-standing statue, but definitely done with the same style and care. It was also definitely a Chozo. The eyes were what attracted Samus's attention though. They were red, and boiling with some kind of energy. The left eye was cracked, and the hot substance leaked out, but the right eye glistened in a deathly stare. The eyes looked like gems or smooth stones, bright red in color.

Slowly, Samus knelt down and touched the jewel. Just as she thought, it came free from its socket, and she was able to pull it out. She stood up, and held the object in her hand. It was hot, and she could feel its energy pulsing through her. Glancing to her right, she saw that her arm cannon was blazing with light. Symbols appeared in her visor that translated into meaning that the strength of her gun had dramatically increased, and a deadly new type of weapon had been equipped known as the Plasma Beam.


End file.
